March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland favors a European Union
plan to bolster the bloc’s emissions trading system and expects
EU lawmakers to support the measure, the country’s environment
minister said.

Carbon permits for delivery in December jumped as much as
14.6 percent after the comments by Phil Hogan, whose country
holds the EU’s rotating presidency until June 30.

EU governments and the bloc’s Parliament are considering a
proposal by the European Commission to delay auctions of some
emission allowances in order to cut a surplus of the permits
that drove prices to an all-time low.

“We are waiting for the outcome of the full plenary
session vote of the European Parliament on April 16 to see how
we can advance things after that, but we’re confident that there
will be a success,” Hogan said in an interview during a meeting
of EU environment ministers in Brussels today.

While the commission’s plan wasn’t discussed at today’s
gathering, there’s growing support for the draft measure at
regular meetings of diplomats from national governments,
according to an EU presidency official, who asked not to be
identified, citing policy.

Slovenia joined the group of supporters of the carbon
market rescue plan, according to an official of the country’s
representation to the EU.

Emission allowances for December closed 11 percent higher
at 4.42 euros a metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in
London. The contracts fell to a record-low 2.81 euros Jan. 24.

Backloading Plan

The commission’s strategy is to postpone the sale of 900
million carbon allowances from 2013-2015, and return permits to
the market at the end of the decade in a process known as
backloading.

“This is a short-term measure in order to see what we can
do, to bolster the carbon price and stop it going into free-fall
altogether,” Hogan said.

In the first step of the backloading plan, a carbon-law
change would reassert the commission’s right to decide the
timing of auctions. In the second stage, governments would
consider a measure setting out the details of the delay.

The Parliament is set to discuss the law change on April 15
in Strasbourg, France, and vote on it the following day. The
assembly’s environment committee backed the draft measure in a
non-binding ballot in February by 35 votes to 28, with two
abstentions. A majority of members from the European People’s
Party, the biggest political group in the Parliament, was
against the proposal.

Final Version

“Even though the environment committee was somewhat
difficult on the matter” and passed responsibility for
approving talks on the proposal with member states to the full
assembly, “there are indications that that will happen and that
we will get a short-term result on the backloading,” Hogan
said.

Should the Parliament support the draft law change and
authorize Matthias Groote, the lead lawmaker on the measure, to
start negotiations with member states, the two sides will need
to agree on a final version of the proposal. The plan will need
formal approval by the plenary and by EU ministers in further
votes to take place in the coming months.

Adoption of the law change would pave the way for member
states to vote on a measure setting the details of the carbon-market rescue plan. To be implemented, the plan needs 255 out of
345 votes in the EU’s weighted-ballot system.

Nations are moving closer to the qualified-majority
threshold, the presidency official said.

To form a blocking minority, opponents of backloading would
need to muster 91 votes against it. Three countries that have
objected to the rescue plan are Poland, Greece and Cyprus, with
a total of 43 votes. Germany remains undecided on how to cast
its 29 votes. Other countries still to adopt an official stance
include Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.